Whisper
by crassedevlin
Summary: Al Bhed watch the stars. For ages they trace lines in its organic tapestry. When an asteroid containing the ingredients for life rubs noses with Spira, the scientific community is polarized. One scientist makes strides toward a means of harnessing the vessel for good. But there are others with motives far more illusive.
1. Whisper - Episode One: Highroad

**Whisper**

 **Episode One: Highroad**

The console inhales and lets out a whisper.

 _"Does immortality intrigue you?"_

 _"Spending an entire lifetime learning from failure, endless rabbit holes of defeat and triumph. Mistakes, changing their tune after a time, dancing about our projects and interpersonal relationships. Dabbling in different poses, unabashedly teasing us with their impetuous nature."_

Dekklan places a hand on the monitor and records the final piece of data he needs for a funding proposal. His wife, and research partner, Kaia, places her hand over his as if to say, _its finally over_.

Administrative bodies impose new, egalitarian measures for research candidates in light of developments in pyrefly technology. Al Bhed researchers hack the atomic lattice of these pockets of energy. The results polarize Spira's scientific community.

 _"Mistakes become victories unto themselves. They tell us what doesn't work. Gut a mistake and you're bound to find an invaluable lesson."_

Kaia whispers prayer under her breath. One of the few she remembers from a time in Yevon. Old habits surface when people feel most vulnerable to chance. When all those variables flying about the universe collude to ruin satisfaction.

One too many people. One too many days gone to waste. One too many entries in a ledger.

Today she prays for safe travel. Leaving a place you love is always difficult, she knows. Leaving Kilika is something she lives with everyday.

Sin's inaugural assault bends the island nation in two.

 _"A lifetime teaches the mind plenty. Mistakes grow smaller, appear less often until, eventually, we die a conceptual death."_

 _"The swirling mass of electrons guiding our behavior become more binary. Decisions require less thought, they become more automatic. The brain exchanges awareness for comfort. Days fly by in the blink of an eye. Weeks turn into months. Months to years. Eventually the sorrows of yesterday become passing glances."_

Today is different, Kaia says to herself. Dekklan knows this too. Today they embark on a journey that may cement their place in Spira's history.

Years prior, Dekklan begins his endeavors on the shoulders of one Al Bhed researcher, Maurok. The man is a visionary in the truest sense. His inventions play a hand in razing the city of Zanarkand during the Machina War.

 _"Something strange happens after the second century or so. Life takes on different shape. Fears multiply in number and potency. Mountains of thought engulf our younger selves. A low hum replaces the sound of the universe. A dismal, latent afterthought of the great beyond."_

 _"Does immortality intrigue you?"_

Sin's presence stunts Spira's digital age.

Maurok's writings are so valuable that Yevon seals them away for almost a millennia. Only a handful are left in the wild.

" _Sin, now there's a concept."_

 _"Imagine taking the world's transgression, bottling it up and selling it to the masses wholesale. That's what Sin is."_

 _"Yevon calls it punishment for past mistakes but this is from the lens of their belief. Sin is a just reward for their forefathers' primal stupidity. An ultimate mistake."_

 _"Why do they seek to fill minds with oceans of misguided principles?"_

 _"Sometimes I feel as though…"_

Yevon denounces rational explanations for natural phenomena. For hundreds of years the religious body destroys fledgling research operations in the name of withholding scientific knowledge. So much so that prime candidates for geographic exile, the Al Bhed, are cast from communities and told to make haste for the Sanubia Desert. There, they wander for decades before constructing what they now call Home.

 _"...Spira's people clamor for meaning in a universe with so little."_

 _"When I look to the sun and stars I see elemental incubators. When a Yevoner looks to the sun and stars they see love and grace."_

 _"Love? Grace?"_

 _"Why do we confine ourselves to these thought prisons? Why can't Yevoners take one hard look around them and see the true nature of things?"_

 _"I spend my life studying those 'little balls of light' and I can assure you they are nothing more than..."_

The existence of Sin is a direct result of the Pyrefly Effect. Maurok coins the term in his seminal work, a piece that cements his place in the field of Pyrefly Dynamics.

Pyreflies are a natural phenomena that occur when electromagnetic currents propagate through natural environments. These channels coalesce into points of energy that travel along finite, predictable trajectories.

After the Machina War, when most of Spira shies away from technological study, the Al Bhed find refuge in it. Almost as a means of compensating for their discounted status in Spira's social hierarchy. To this day, pyrefly research allows them to create many of the technologies Spirans now see as commonplace. Spheres, for instance, allow users to record audio and visual experiences on a whim. One of the most powerful properties of pyreflies is their receptivity to different forms of energy. Upon exposure to extreme heat and pressure, large pyrefly concentrations take on solid form.

" _...dogs in the fight for creation."_

 _"Those orbs of light are terrific fuel for innovation. They give us the technological backbone for spheres, hydrodynamics, and weaponry."_

 _"Factories don't run on prayer you know."_

No more than a decade after High Summoner Braska ushers in a time of peace, Yevon takes a stab at expunging the world of Sin. The super weapon their team of researchers concoct is terrible in power. Add to this a military presence unlike any other and Sin's days appear to be numbered. Operation Mi'hen is the project Yevon devises.

The Mi'hen Highroad cuts southern Spira in half. The western Highroad is a common tourist destination, a relatively safe passage that attracts people from all over. The eastern Highroad offers a much more visceral experience. According to Maurok, this difference in degree is due to each region's concentration of pyreflies.

 _"This is why Farplane Rock intrigues me so."_

 _"The Al Bhed watch the stars. For ages, we trace lines in its organic tapestry."_

 _"Farplane Rock has long history with Spira. Shards from the asteroid's surface carry energy signatures present in the Farplane, final resting place of the dead."_

Pyreflies may actually be responsible for facilitating the genesis and sustenance of electric currents in living systems.

For instance, the moment an organism's heart stops beating, low amperage currents present in the body's living tissue decrease in strength. Following motor death, pyreflies assume their recognizable form, appearing as orbs of light leaving the vessel.

The observable wavelengths which pyreflies assume in these circumstances manipulate free-form light particles that exist in abundance during the day. Sparse concentrations of these free-form bodies exhibit similar qualities as well. Observable visions are not uncommon.

 _"The findings make it clear that this asteroid may house the ingredients necessary for life."_

 _"Does its orbit touch other life-bearing planets?"_

Before science intervenes, physicians associate these phenomena with mental illnesses such as dementia and schizophrenia but further research finds that not only are these visions a direct result of pyreflies affecting observable light signatures but, via the Pyrefly Effect, these entities seem to exhibit an almost social cohesiveness.

Pyreflies can work together to affect larger fields of particles. A population of organisms can share a collective vision.

 _"Despite observable difficulty, opportunity presents itself in the most surprising ways."_

Since atomic particles are so small, they can weave in and out of solids and liquids with ease. Pyreflies are fundamentally atomic in nature so they can exhibit similar tropes in their behavior - hence their presence in and around living systems.

To add to this, groups of pyreflies have the ability to mimic the atomic arrangements they observe. Like memorizing the lines of a poem or learning information from a book.

This means that a group of synchronized pyreflies can pass through a living system, say a brain, and mimic the electron fields present in this structure. Once these behaviors are learned, so to speak, the very same behavior can be used to affect free-form light particles outside the living body. Ideas native to the mind can be brought to life for brief instances, sometimes prolonged periods, depending on how open the associated field is to manipulation. This is the conceptual basis to many of the collective visions people observe in the Farplane.

Dekklan spends almost a decade making sense of Maurok's work. After the Machina War, Yevon scatters Maurok's journals and encyclopedic entries about Spira in an attempt to curtail intellectual movements. It is a maze trying to find out just how much the man discovers in his short stint with life.

On the way, Dekklan and Kaia rehearse their presentation. The man responsible for administering research funding awaits their proposal. One of the few benefits of Operation Mi'hen is Yevon's generous endowment to the field of science.

 _"Eyes, psychotic. Hair, bizarre."_

Mega weapons do not build themselves.

 _"Simply pathological."_

Dekklan makes it clear to Kaia that he should do most of the talking, "these Yevoners are insane. It's best we take them seriously. Follow their rules, I mean. One wrong move and its the Via Purifico."

Guadosalam is a fitting meeting place in two respects: in one regard it is the home of the Farplane, the single largest concentration of pyreflies in all of Spira. And in another regard, it is the home of Operation Mi'hen's Head Coordinator, a bridge between the Al Bhed and Yevon.

"Good work, Maurok," Seymour says as he lays the journal to rest. His audience waits for a response to their work. Life passing before their eyes. An entire decade boiling down to the next few moments.

Dekklan stares, awestruck, with prying eyes. Was this man mocking the great Maurok? It is then he realizes Seymour is staring through him. There is something Dekklan cannot see without turning around.

The makeshift conference room reflects Guado sentiment toward the Al Bhed. Operation Mi'hen is Yevon's first attempt at rescinding these poor relations. The Guado return the favor by offering Spira's top research candidate a re-purposed broom closet in which to present his decade long struggles.

Dekklan's seat, opposite Seymour, has his back to the entry way - he cannot see who leaves and enters the room. Kaia sits at his side, her eyes leering to the impending anomaly behind him. Dekklan slowly turns. The resultant emotion is so sudden it extinguishes his anxiety. There, standing in traditional garb, is Maurok. A man commanding so much respect, Yevon itself acknowledges his legacy. A man whose work Dekklan spends his entire adult life trying to understand.

 _"He is here. But how?"_

"With all due respect, thousands of people are responsible for the work. Too many souls to count," These words leave Maurok's lips with resolve, as though he knows them by heart.

"Your work is written all over it," Seymour responds quickly, his sly nature morphing into dialogue, "what brings you here?"

"Spira's finest make an appearance in Guadosalam and the corporate dining hall sees no use. It appears your better judgement prevails," Maurok responds with a sarcastic tonality.

"Spira's finest, yes. Yevon's finest, not quite. Operation Mi'hen has yet to prove its efficacy. Until then, things will continue as normal." As Seymour says this, he rises from his seat. The man is tall, lanky beyond belief. After making his way past Dekklan and Kaia's eternal astonishment, he squeezes past Maurok in the now agape entry way, dropping one last nugget of wisdom:

"You're a good team, you and your wife. Maurok's presence shouldn't surprise you. The man has a mind Spira needs. He will show you the ropes I'm sure. Your future research depends on it," his voice gaining speed, "I must admit, of the hundreds of research proposals that benefit from Yevon's funding, this one does show the most promise. Keep up the good work and it won't be _your_ heads rolling down Bevelle's stone steps."

Spira's Maester leaves the meeting with a cohort of guards at his behest.

 _"It dawns on me that what I am observing has no place in our reality. It does not seem to be alive or dead. Like a suspended animation."_

 _"It is as though I am looking at a mirror from someone else's perspective. The vision is brief, but its effect on my psyche is irreversible."_

Upon Seymour's exit, Dekklan suppresses the desire to ask Maurok the plethora of questions swirling around his head. Immediately, Maurok asks Kaia and Dekklan to follow him to his laboratory. Along the way, he describes his new work with the same passion and vigor present in his writings.

 _"I spend weeks considering the consequences of the vision. Why do the pyreflies behave this way? Why do they present me visions of people I have never seen before?"_

 _"The vision isn't a mental projection from someone in the adjacent room, an electro-retardant lines the research laboratory walls. Nothing short of a laser beam is getting through them in one piece. No other energy signature consistent with life is present within the room either, and I am in full garb during all experimental procedures, thoughts in my head safe from the Pyrefly Effect."_

 _"The vision sends me down a line of thought few men entertain. Is it possible that..."_

Guadosalam presents itself as a maze. The organic materials the Guado use to construct their subterranean burrows offer a temperate clime between the frozen wastes of Macalania and the impossible Sanubia Desert. Maurok's laboratory hangs out of a wall cleft. Two tree trunks crossing intermittently offer a makeshift passage way.

Upon entry, the laboratory appears bleak. A single piece of equipment hangs aloft from the ceiling in the center of a refurbished dining hall. It seems the Guado are fond of re-purposing domestic arrangements in the name of science.

Dekklan's excitement withers away at the surprising normalcy. He expects spectacle but receives nothing more than a center console, no different than the ones present in his own lab.

They follow Maurok into the rectangular room, three chairs surround a structure in the middle, each in front of a screen no larger than those one would find in conventional airship hangars. Normal uses include logistical operations, weapons deployment and simulation testing.

 _"...the pyreflies in the test chamber are reacting to some sort of system-wide development?"_

 _"Perhaps these developments are responsible for some of the more inexplicable events I've been observing as of late. The flickering of gas giants, brain aneurisms, collective visions..."_

Maurok finally speaks, "I'm glad you could make it here tonight. Our work is slow but the tiny milestones turn into larger ones after a time. I'll begin by explaining why Yevon is entertaining your proposal."

 _"Is it possible that we are living in a reflection of something bigger, more substantial, more real? What compels the universe's curator to allow this experiment to continue? Is this a controlled culture of some kind? Some sort of sick..."_

"By we, I mean _us_. You, me, Kaia, other Al Bhed researchers, so on so forth. We all work very hard in specific fields of scientific inquiry but, for what?"

Maurok speaks as he paces the room from side to side. His clothes, ancient in dim lighting. Blues and yellows of the old Al Bhed crest hanging still on his back as he breathes in heavily between statements, "for instance, you spend your days delving deep into the whys and hows of collective visions. Other researchers decide to focus their efforts on addressing the problems of superposition and entropy. What do all these projects have in common?"

This is the first time Dekklan has an opportunity to speak since Seymour's leave. He looks at Kaia, then at Maurok - still pacing, half waiting for an answer.

"We are all extending the reach of your original work. What is it you are getting at? Are you trying to suggest that this is a..."

"Collective vision? This may not be too far from the truth," Maurok stops pacing and sits down in one of the chairs. While absent-mindedness bleeds through heavy eyelids, his fingers fly about the main console springing screens to life.

Kaia and Dekklan join him in their own respective chairs.

"When you spend enough time thinking about something, even ridiculous notions acquire an air of plausability. Farplane Rock is a perfect example of this," Maurok says, "the energy signatures, as you probably know by now, are consistent with those present in the Farplane, a location not far from here. You see now why Guadosalam is an excellent home for my research operation."

The console readout is in a Guado dialect. Dekklan and Kaia, unfamiliar with the language, settle for silence.

Maurok continues, "the Guado aren't always the most accomodating, but it only takes a nudge to step out of the shade."

 _"...twisted anomally? A hiccup in time?"_

 _"The weeks turn into months. Months to years. Eventually, faith in my research dwindles. It isn't until the electrostatic sensors off the coast begin going crazy that it makes sense to look up."_

"Why are they allowing your research to continue?" Dekklan asks. Curious beyond belief.

 _"Farplane Rock offers a chance to answer a few of these questions. A chance."_

"Take a look," it is at this time that Maurok directs their attention to the consoles in front of them. The visual data disappears for a split second and, out of the blackness, a simple read-out.

 _"The coastal sensors set off an alarm in the presence of large, electric fields. Due to the electronic nature of weaponized machina, the sensors serve the purpose of alerting officials of impending assaults. These units are so useful to my research operations that it only seems natural to sell them to Zanarkand officials during the height of the Machina War. The influx of cash bodes well for future developments."_

 _"Little do we know the coastal sensors will also play a role in predicting the largest galactic anomally in Spira's history."_

"The probe's signal broadcast provides perfect understanding of when we will see Farplane Rock again. The asteroid houses energy unlike anything on our planet. Enough to solve the problem of resource management and, more important, give us the letters and words necessary to rewrite Spira's future."

 _"The magnitude of pyreflies in Farplane Rock's electronic radius shorts the vast majority of the refurbished models. My research laboratory in Bevelle - shortly before Yevon begins excavating scientists to the Sanubia Desert - is responsible for keeping many of these units in working order in case Zanarkand's disenfranchised machinists devise a revenge plot. Most of Zanarkand's intellectual elite are rejects of Bevelle institutions, perfect fodder for a sinister brew. As we all know now, Zanarkand's revenge comes regardless. Sin changes everything."_

Maurok speaks with such conviction, Kaia and Dekklan catch the bug. Dekklan now sees why Maurok clings to the world of the living, Spira's future is paramount to his existence.

Maurok is a man of a thousand years. Weaving in and out of Spira's political structure far longer than nature normally permits can do a number on an individual's moral compass. To believe a man of a thousand years is a fool's errand unto itself.

 _"A handful of scientists in Astrology know of Farplane Rock."_

 _"They tell me that it is an asteroid with an elliptical orbit. It will rub noses with our planet within the next day or two. After its upcoming visit, Spira will not see the stone for another one-thousand years."_

 _"There's a chance - a chance mind you - that we have enough time to fasten a probe to the giant rock. Something that will record data to be of use a millenia from now."_

 _"Luckily, my fast friends have experience launching probes on a budget and within a day we begin testing Spira's Hope, as we come to call it."_

 _"As the stone grazes our planet's atmosphere, something clings to me as I watch the probe launch. Something lurches at my soul. It is then that I truly realize that I will not be alive to see Farplane Rock's return. I will not be able to see Spira's future rewritten."_

 _"After the probe's first report reaches us, we know its fate is no longer in our hands. All we can do is wait. All Spira can do is wait."_

 _"Returning to the lone console in my laboratory, I decide to continue pondering my dilemma: the inexplicable vision from years past still driving my discomfort. The derision misguides me but, perhaps, the event can be of use to someone else. Someone wiser, with more experience."_

 _"The clowns in my research troupe are just that: clowns. I cannot trust them. No, it will have to be me."_

 _"It is then that the screen in front of me lights up. Almost spontaneously, as though a puppeteer is pulling the strings."_

 _"The console inhales and lets out a whisper."_


	2. Whisper - Episode Two: Sieve

**Whisper**

 **Episode Two: Sieve**

 _"A stone falls from space. It lands somewhere between Sanubia and Macalania. In its carapace, the seed of life."_

"Planets foster paranoia. Understanding aids in its digestion but one cannot live a life without casualty. This truth frightens man and beast alike, lurching them from sleep, funneling anxiety into chaos. After all, isn't that what the mind really is? A void free of tantalizingly strict initial variables? A weather system born feral? Our only hope?"

"Do you want me to end with that?" Dekklan responds to Maurok as he scribbles down a set of notes into his journal, pregnant with ideas from research.

"I think Maurok wants you to use that as an opener, to catch their attention," Kaia interjects.

"Use your own discretion," Maurok responds in kind, "Maesters are a picky bunch but they are suckers for a good line or two."

"Surely accommodations should come automatically for the great Maurok, no?" Dekklan chimes in.

"Not at all, my friend. If a thousand years has taught me anything it is this: never question a Maester."

 _"I spend my youth getting to know the streets of Bevelle. Understanding its winding pathways inside and out. Bevelle is a nation-state completely self-sustaining. Trade with the far-reaches of Spira serves the purpose of establishing invaluable alliances in periods of war and civil struggle. Machina is present in every nook and cranny of its walls and homes. My father, a machinist, earns his wage repairing rogue units - normally a result of faulty programming or criminal activity."_

"Seymour gave his approval did he not?" Kaia asks Maurok.

"His explicit blessing is what you are after. That, you did not get."

"Wouldn't be the first time..." Dekklan collapses in his seat, the weight of struggle capitulating, if only for a moment.

 _"It isn't long before the allure of conventional education wears on me. After hours, the machina parts in my father's workshop baptize me in religious zeal. It isn't long before I outpace my peers in every regard. A hunger for knowledge my heralding call."_

The three converse around a center console in Maurok's makeshift laboratory. Guado servants bring refreshments come evening, compliments of the house. As they eat and discuss Spira's health they lose track of time...

"Braska's girl? She seems capable," Kaia says, "but the operation may solve the problem altogether, no?"

Maurok sips a brew with an orange hue, glass wet with condensation, his eyes lock on Kaia's lips, dance about her eyes and hair, he studies her like he would any other subject. After a moment's silence, he lets out a response half-heartedly.

"If all goes as planned, Braska's sacrifice will be Spira's last."

Kaia's eyes light up. There is something about the way Maurok speaks, his conviction maybe, that makes her reconsider everything.

 _"My father's work for the state offers me the privilege of post-graduate studies. I take them on a whim. The years I spend learning the craft of constructing and repairing machina provide me the option of self education but the potential boredoms of doing so seem burdensome. I choose the field of physics because it comes naturally. There isn't a thing in the world that can prepare me for what comes next."_

Conventionally speaking, even with modern advances in medicine, Maurok can pass for a middle-aged man. Kaia attributes this to pyreflies' ability to slow senescence, natural cell death. Dekklan and Kaia encounter this when studying members of the Uraya, an ethnic group with a societal reliance on unsent. Children are born and raised to ultimately die and retain their bodies for an eternity, or until being sent. Their exploitation of death's loophole angers many, resulting in a social status no different than the Al Bhed and Guado.

They scatter about Spira avoiding temples, summoners, anything Yevon, but their collective wisdom is so great they gain reputation as historians. Through this craft, they influence the sociopolitical climate of Spira, the stories its people tell. Their successful members live private lives but one weaves his way into Kaia and Dekklan's research lab with an interesting request.

 _"The rogue machina become too numerous. Units which aid in the commercial transport of goods and services all of a sudden turn a new leaf and attack innocents on the street. Because so many machinists call Bevelle their home, the true culprits are difficult to find."_

A man walks into an Al Bhed research quarter asking for Dekklan and Kaia, the two post-graduate researchers looking to make a name for themselves in the field of Pyrefly Dynamics. A teacher's aid points him in the right direction, partially hypnotized by his tall figure and youthful complexion. Thanking her, he makes his way through rooms full of gadgets and apparatus responsible for furthering Spira's pursuit of science, giving none of them a second look. It isn't long before he finds the duo.

 _"Bevelle and Zanarkand are in the middle of a century-long power struggle, or so the history books say. Zanarkand's elite class, the summoners, are a heady bunch. Their doctrines and principles firmly rooted in age old ideals. Zanarkand's incumbent population of summoners vilify members of their society which take part in 'Bedohl wizardry', as they call it."_

 _"Bevelle's elite class, the machinists, take in Zanarkand's poorly-treated intellectuals. A decree makes immigration to Bevelle-proper even easier for these disparaged groups. Bevelle's population nearly doubles in the decades that follow. These changes to demography lead to widespread insurrection in heavily populated areas. Intelligent people who fail in finding employment hand their talents over to Bevelle's crime syndicates. Business owners, like my father, prosper from the increase in repair cases but Bevelle's innocents bear the brunt of the crime wave._

 _"Bevelle begins rotting from the inside out."_

Dekklan and Kaia accept the man's proposal. It involves examining his unsent body for an energy signature described in Dekklan's earliest paper, 'Summoning as a Self Awareness Deterrent'. In it he describes multiple theories on how summoning came to exist in its current form and its relationship to a recently discovered neural frequency associated with self awareness, an appropriately named construct referred to as Gnoe.

Gnoe is an electron configuration brains ascertain during intense meditative states, akin to the ones one would find in an individual after a bout of prayer or a summoning ritual.

If the universe is a living system, then pyreflies exposed to Gnoe behave similarly to white blood cells. Gnoe unlocks a latent ability in pyreflies which allows them to alter the atomic structures in their midst. The same way white blood cells encapsulate foreign bodies as a means of protecting the living system as a whole, pyreflies work in tandem to mimic the electron configuration of subliminal thoughts and alter their own behavior in much the same way stem cells behave during differentiation. Pyreflies can alter atomic structures in their midst, sometimes changing entire fields of air molecules (for instance) into entities with solid form (a summon). Ideas of the mind can become real.

The visceral imagery observed during Summoning Events are a defense mechanism of the universe, our living system. Dekklan proposes that the universe's curator anticipated true self awareness (Gnoe) as a threat to the living system's integrity - a clear indication that our perception of reality may simply be an experiment within a lab setting (much to the she-grin of contemporary creationists) - so, naturally, developed counter-algorithms to handle its onset. One of these is summoning. Perhaps summons are a method of coping with overpopulation or a way of providing intelligent species the tools necessary to expunge themselves. Regardless, if proof of a simulation exists, it has yet to be found.

These fayth-imbued summons are merely images passed from a petrified circuit (fayth) to an active circuit (summoner). This transfer occurs due to the atomic nature of pyreflies and can only occur when a summoner is channeling Gnoe. Petrified circuitry is seen in spheres and partially explains the serial nature of summon (or 'aeon') acquisition - it may be the reason why many summoners can receive an aeon from the same fayth. The process Yu Yevon utilizes to create these original, petrified circuits is currently unknown. Many scientists suggest the involvement of machina but, of course, it is in their best interests to keep these suppositions to themselves.

Post-aeon-acquisition, when a summoner channels Gnoe, pyreflies in adjacent fields are immediately attracted to this event. This pyrefly behavior allows a summoner to render the fayth-imbued summons from their mind into physical reality by affecting the atomic structures in their midst. The images take on physical form due to the differentiation of atoms into new and novel states.

Gnoe is an energy state which is easier for some individuals to attain than others. It can also be achieved through prolonged meditative practice, normally a result of years, sometimes decades of conscious deliberation.

The scientific community of Spira rewards Dekklan with a research position at its most prestigious institution, Kaia joins the program not soon after, enamored by the paper's vehement contrast with Yevon ideologies.

 _"It isn't long before Bevelle declares itself a military state. My education's focus changes as my physics program morphs into a haven from the outside. Physicists are in high demand for their technical prowess with machina's electronic systems. Thousands flock to my university seeking to score a piece of the impending war. It isn't long before routine, militarized check-ups in dormitories are replaced by state-wide ankle bracelets - leaving dissenters limbless by the dozens - detonating when a cuffed-agent leaves a designated zone. Two subcultures quickly emerge in this new city-state: those that understand the machina they use and those that don't. Manual laborers (street cleaners, window washers and what have you) slowly become a thing of the past as economic hierarchies crumble to binary proportions. This, alongside a crime wave like no other, makes the Imperial Decree that follows a statistical certainty..."_

The Uraya in their research lab stands a head taller than Dekklan, a large man in his own right, at first glance he appears to be the perfect image of good health. However, as Kaia and Dekklan expose his body to preliminary testing, they slowly find that his electron configuration is in a prolonged state of Gnoe.

The man is an unsent.

Uraya sentiments on the trivial nature of life and existence make their views on the otherwise substantial, such as the name of a child, a rather curious affair at best. For instance, the man who strolls into their lab this day is named Buckle. Buckle goes on to explain that it isn't all that uncommon for Uraya to be named after everyday things (trinkets, fruit, wooden cabinets, so on so forth). He has a wife named Lampp, a son named Shayde and a sister named Clipp. The extra 'p' is to differentiate them from the rest of the Clips and Lamps out there.

"We are a curious bunch. But does it surprise you?" Buckle's words dance out of his mouth like they've been rehearsed in front of a mirror ad nauseam. Considering the fact that his age is ambiguous, Kaia sees this as a consequence of immortality - general ease in social interaction. After all, he has had the opportunity to study people far longer than nature intended.

"The Uraya are not all that different than the Al Bhed in that regard," Dekklan tinkers with the research equipment as he removes sensory endings from Buckle's temples, "we tend to grow up quicker than non-Al Bhed. It shows in our commitment to craft. We learn early on that sticking with something you're good at is far more valuable to the community than doing something you enjoy. You know, the greater good..."

His voice trails off as he unhinges Buckle's wrists from the apparatus, a grand machine which allows researchers like Kaia and Dekklan the ability to study electron configurations present in living structures. Most of the time their research involves rodents but, every once in a while, an able candidate like Buckle walks through their doors with the unbelievable urge to contribute to the world of science. Buckle is one of many that travel across Spira to the Al Bhed Home in efforts to do the very same. A week prior, Kaia receives word that a summoner from Kilika is on her way to contribute to the Operation as it nears completion. It turns out Yevon is taking big strides to support the cause, even enlisting the help of summoners from torn communities as a means of driving the message home.

Kaia and Dekklan are more than happy to accept their contributions, especially if it means they can add to Spira's Cognitive Genome, a project intended to identify the neural similarities and differences between Spira's people. It begins as a pet project but soon morphs into a full-fledged endeavor attracting attention from all over.

Buckle leaves not soon after the research trial, his face glowing with appreciation. Just before he makes his way through the door of Kaia and Dekklan's lab, he reveals an interesting item from his drab jacket pocket: a book. He entrusts it to Kaia, Dekklan, absorbed by work, often forgets to bid participants adieu. The item is important to their research, Buckle tells her, before making his way through the double door entrance of the research lab. Kaia does not know it yet, but this man is responsible for moving their research endeavors leaps and bounds ahead of their peers. To this day Kaia still wonders if Buckle's visit to their lab is an act of fate.

 _"Bevelle's state officials adopt a form of conscription: every able-bodied man and woman must report to a local recruiter's office to sign up for combat. Those who are able to pass the standardized examinations with flying colors will be granted the privilege of avoiding ground-based affairs. Plenty of individuals find themselves cast out of my education program, class sizes dwindle, and it is then that the select few individuals in my cohort become embroiled in a competition which will literally determine the fate of our lives. Any one student deemed less than perfect may suffer the pain of military conflict. Bevelle wants to sift its most gifted from the rubbish and the penalty of war is their sieve of choice."_

"Perhaps you should begin with something more pertinent to the study," Kaia says to Dekklan as the evening rounds to a close.

"What did you have in mind?" Dekklan asks.

Kaia will never forget the first line of the book Buckle hands to her, it is a quote from one of Spira's early historians, of the same stock responsible for chronicling the Machina War. She retrieves the memory and says:

"A stone falls from space. It lands somewhere between Sanubia and Macalania. In its carapace, the seed of life."


	3. Whisper - Episode Three: Snatch

**Whisper**

 **Episode Three: Snatch**

Long ago, gravity births a ball of matter, interplanetary forces distort its shape beyond reason; it relieves itself of skin, casting vestiges of its soul into some lone cosmic basin; it holds on for dear life as it flies, head spinning, through a void of nothing; it comes out the other side a shadow of its former self, yet still confident enough to play tug-of-war with the sun. At this point Farplane Rock sheds a piece of its torso. The piece enters the orbit of a bright, blue orb in the cosmos. After drifting in circles for a time, it ignites, nestling its way into a nutrient-rich atmosphere. Long before there is a Sanubia or a Macalania, the bulk of this extra-terrestrial vessel craters its way into the glowing orb's flesh. Fumes burst from the carapace, life oozing from its openings like burst nerve-endings - Farplane Rock's nightshade: the self-reliant seed from which Spira ensues.

Pyrefly Differentiation is the process that follows. For millions of years the ground absorbs the seed's energies. This process fosters the creation of Spira's first life forms. In large enough concentrations, pyreflies are able to form collective intellects no different than the set of neurons in a brain. These collective intellects are able to channel Gnoe, an electron configuration scientists come to associate with self awareness. By channelling Gnoe, an infinite loop begins: Gnoe attracts pyreflies already present in the surrounding area to the source of the configuration, these pyreflies mimic the visual elements present in the collective intellect's mind, these visual elements set the stage for the process of atomic differentiation that occurs in adjacent field particles, and matter bends to the will of the collective intellect.

As the Farplane is terraformed by differentiative powers, microbes take root on the infant planet.

 _"Scientists are yet to understand the true origin of Spira's earliest forms of life. Did these pyreflies observe another species somewhere off in the galaxy and use their memory to summon the first forms of life present in Spira today? Is the observable universe a work of fiction? Synthesized from the imagination of pyreflies?"_

 _"There is a rumor drifting about Spira's scientific community that the Farplane is more than Yevon's 'home of the dead'. Rumors float about surmising that its ecology rivals the complexity of weather systems on our planet. Rainfall, evaporation of the seas, rainfall again."_

 _"A few Bedohl physicists publish a paper with the title 'Return of Pyreflies to Their Place of Origin'. The research gains credence because of its attachment to an old Guado folk tale, one which concerns a stone deep down in the dimensionless pit we call the Farplane. They conclude that the pyreflies may be returning to a hive mind of sorts, a master intelligence."_

 _"The folk tale goes on to say that the entrance to the Farplane, in Guadosalam, is akin to an iris, a porthole into life's hive mind, a place where life's fallen derivatives recoup after their time in the sun."_

After clawing through Spira's political sphere, Maurok convinces Yevon's council to grant him access to Guado data charts, which detail Farplane pyrefly behavior through the ages. Despite their quaint dwellings, Guado exports include some of Spira's most notable natural scientists; their long, gangly fingers and wooden complexions too perfect a brew for coincidence to stomach.

 _"After Farplane Rock grazes our planet's atmosphere, it becomes clear that I have to see this fantastical place for myself. I have to understand what it is I've been reading about for so long. The Farplane beckons."_

 _"Under the impression that the Machina War is over, I pack my bags, hoping to find my way to Guadosalam in about a month's time. Travel restrictions make journeys of this sort a difficult matter. War is no picnic._

 _"However, Zanarkand is not dead. It has one last trick up its sleeve. Yu Yevon will not go gently."_

Maurok spends centuries reading these charts. Immortality, fueling his irreverence for time's passage. Despite this, Maurok knows there is a deadline, Farplane Rock will return.

As he studies these ancient notes and passages, he looks up from time to time to see Spira changing before his very eyes. From his perch in Bevelle, he hears of Spira's first Calm, it is Lord Ohalland's final contribution to the people. Not long after, Maurok listens to whispers of a Gandof making his way to each temple, and then on to Zanarkand. Yocun follows many years later and does the same. And Braska, High Summoner Yuna's father, is just a boy when Maurok nears the end of his studies. The Farplane's entire recorded history etched between his ears.

 _"The onset of Sin delays my trip to Guadosalam for a time. Instead, I spend my waking hours learning what the Guado have recorded about the Farplane. Their writings are polished and unbelievably detailed. It isn't long before I realize just how much information the Guado have been keeping from the rest of us."_

It is in this one-thousand-year span that Maurok synthesizes these Guado texts into fuel for his own research. Unfortunately, it is because of this very commitment that Maurok, along with many other researchers in Bevelle, is exiled to the Sanubia Desert. Summoned Sin gives Spira's elite little patience for intellectual feats. The might of Yevon takes root, giving the people hope in exchange for obedience.

 _"Before Sin, research is a private affair. After Sin, however, Yevon begins to view this sort of endeavor as an act of treason. It isn't long before an entire host of intellectuals, including myself, are cast into Sanubia's wastes to die 'free'. The sands swallow many of my friends, the sands swallow centuries of cumulative intellect."_

 _"When the roulette lands on me, I quickly pack my bags with the Guado scripts and run to the dunes, the dunes which ultimately swallow my life whole."_

"Well done," Seymour says. His compliment is merely an act of maintaining social cadence the same way an individual may feel compelled to say "thank you" to a kind gesture. His mind is in Luca, the annual Blitzball Tournament requires his attention.

For Seymour, confusion has set in. His comments on Dekklan and Kaia's research from the other day may not have been harsh enough. Earlier in the day, his assistant slides the itinerary onto his desk. Gasping momentarily, he immediately rises from his seat and begins tracing his way across town to the Operation Mi'hen Foundation Meeting, the final opportunity for research candidates to win approval from Yevon's elite. Before Lord Jyscal's passing, it is strictly a Guado affair, an event where natural scientists can score a portion of Guadosalam's coffers. For a long time, Seymour watches his father, Jyscal, bend to the will of the other Maesters of Yevon. Slowly the Guadosalam he remembers from childhood morphs into a haven for Spira's scientists and Al Bhed riff-raff, or so he thinks.

"Really? So we get an extension to our funding?" Dekklan asks calmly, his mind leaping for joy.

"Of course. You've proven yourselves to be able candidates. The Arc will be happy to have you," Seymour says.

"Arc?" Kaia asks. The lab notebook permanently affixed to her right hand losing grip, palms sweaty with anxiety. Scientists are people after all, very uncomfortable with surprises.

"Didn't Maurok tell you?" Seymour asks, a fiendish grin tracing its way across his mind's eye. He is completely aware of the fact that these two have no clue why it is they are here in Guadosalam.

"Unfortunately no, not at all." Dekklan is taken aback. Is this a trick? He wonders to himself. Is Maurok some sort of Yevon spy? And what is all this talk about an Arc?

"Relax Dekklan. You and your wife have earned it," Seymour analyzes their stolid expressions, the oval-shaped room distorting in the reflection of Dekklan's eyeball, "Did you never ask why you and your wife were such fitting candidates?"

Dekklan looks to Kaia, the notebook hanging for dear life by the tips of her fingers, slipping gently to the floor below, her face plastered with deliberate confusion, the sort of confusion you may find on the face of a toddler lost in a crowd of people, desperately calling for its mother, a stranger not too far away watching and waiting for the opportunity to pounce, a black market calling his name.

It all begins to make sense: the intense screening process they undergo upon entering Guadosalam, Seymour's nonchalance when voicing his opinions about their work, the broom closets.

"The truth of the matter is," at this point Seymour pauses for a moment longer than one may expect, the weight of the statement that follows incalculable, "Operation Mi'hen was never intended to be successful."

Dekklan recalls sharing similar thoughts with Kaia not long after the duo receives their first endorsement from Yevon. After centuries of prosecuting scientists, it seems odd that Spira's impromptu regulators would find a means of justifying further encouragement of research operations ( _impromptu_ seems to be an appropriate description of Spira's current state of affairs especially when one considers the, almost, rash behaviors of the government elect. Predicting how all of this turns out would have been an impressive feat for Yu Yevon let alone anyone, for that matter.) Perhaps Yevon does so for the ultimate purpose of finding out where all of these operations are taking place - with the ultimate goal of expunging them from living memory. Despite all of these fears, funding is so hard to come by most scientists take their offer, no matter the drawbacks.

Considering how pronounced the funding packages are, it is only natural to relinquish these fears long enough to complete an application. The Omega Weapon further validates the offer, the enormous cannon beckons Sin's end. Days prior, as Dekklan and Kaia leave Home on their way to Guadosalam, they watch dozens of Al Bhed machinists load the enormous contraption for deployment.

Kaia scans Seymour's face. Seymour's tact and brevity appears calculated, he slowly but surely masters the emotional cues necessary to stir the perfect reaction from his captive audience.

"Sin is eternal. Spira's entire way of life revolves around Sin's death and resurrection. It is in our best interests to keep this beast alive," Seymour says, "why would we expose all of Spira to the discomfort of uncertainty? Sin is certainty. As certain as death itself."

Seymour's words pain Kaia's heart. She can feel the organ beating faster than ever before. The mere thought that Sin's existence has been serialized into Yevon's power structure makes her sick, however, the prospect of leaving behind all of this mess seems privilege enough.

She looks up and catches Dekklan's eyes leering over her expressionless face. There is something in those eyes, Kaia thinks, something that doesn't seem right. Something which she has not seen for a long time. Fear.

"The Arc is the real reason why the operation was approved in the first place," Seymour went on, "Mi'hen is just interesting enough to capture people's imaginations, to give them hope. Your research funds were just an excuse for Yevon to funnel its excess cash reserves into something more... _worthwhile_. Something we want you two to be a part of."

Seymour continues, "In all honesty, did you really think your research would amount to anything substantial? You would have been better off playing the power structure like Maurok did for the last millenia. Look where that got him. At the snap of my fingers, his dirty soul would be sent to the Farplane in a heartbeat."

"Pyreflies aren't souls, they're..." Dekklan began.

"No one cares about your research Dekklan. The only people that believe you are the other scientists that understand it, of which there are few. Spirans are far too preoccupied with trying to stave off starvation and fiend populations."

Kaia is taken aback by this allegation. Dekklan doesn't falter.

"What do you hope to gain in the Unknown?" Dekklan asks. The Unknown is the name most Spirans associate with the vastness of space.

Seymour pauses. The conference room where the three currently stand feels smaller than it did when they started. The same feeling you get when you walk into your childhood room after years away from home, a room too eager to share its privilege of remaining unchanged.

After a pause, he lets out a handful of statements which change Dekklan and Kaia's lives forever.


End file.
